When Donnette was thirteen, her family took a trip to the Florida Keys for a week of boating and camping by the water. This was a trip they had taken many times; Donnette’s entire family loves the water and none of them consider it a vacation unless the sun is shining and blue water is… Continue reading Sinking Ships

“Surely you know that if a man can’t be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighbourhood looking for the church that “suits” him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches.” – Uncle Screwtape, from C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters When I moved to Charlotte, I… Continue reading Shopping around…

A couple of years ago, Donnette and I participated in our church’s Newly-Wed game during the annual Valentine’s Day dinner. In the first round, Donnette along with the three other wives were asked to leave the room while the guys remained behind to answer questions, based, presumably, on how we thought our wives would answer. In other words,… Continue reading Natural Born…

The most popular question I’m asked when I tell people what we’re doing is, “do you speak French?” I’m always forced to say no, though I do speak American French, which is just English, spoken more loudly and slowly, and is generally considered obnoxious by all but the most generous of listeners. * The second… Continue reading The second most asked question…

I’ve been thinking about this last weekend a good bit. Nothing special happened, the three of us went to breakfast, did a little shopping, watched the Olympics, I ran some errands while the girls napped, then we ate dinner and watched more Olympics. It was a normal Saturday. It’s been on my mind because I’ve… Continue reading Contexts

But it seems South Carolina has perfected it. My task what for the morning was simple. I needed to get a SC drivers license. I looked online, knew where the building was, knew what time it opened (or so I thought), knew what documents I needed (again, what do I know?), found them as best… Continue reading The French may have invented red tape…

This last weekend we spent time with Pete and Ruth Mitchell (and their daughter Mary Ellen), our team leaders in France. (Technically, Pete is the leader, but you get the drift.) Wednesday night they spoke at Sovereign Grace, letting our church family know what the work and the need is like in France. Thursday night… Continue reading Time with the Mitchell’s